Several students have returned to campus after spending a week at the Sundance Film Festival to attend a Christians in Film forum.

John Puckett, junior multimedia major from Amarillo, Forrest Lorenzen, junior multimedia major from Amarillo, Jessica Clark, junior multimedia major from Wylie, and Allison Brown, senior journalism major from Midland, took a week off from classes to spend time in snowy Park City, Utah, watching films and listening in on discussions with everyone from indie directors to Quentin Tarantino.

The students were accompanied by faculty members Dr. Kyle Dickson, professor of English, and Dr. Darryl Tippens, university distinguished scholar.

The students went on the sponsored trip to take part in the Windrider Forum, which is a group of Christian colleges that meet during the festival to discuss the films and questions they raise for people of faith, Dickson said.

“Our students joined participants from Pepperdine, Lipscomb, Biola and Fuller Theological Seminary to hear from filmmakers and critics each morning,” said Dickson.

Clark said the forum offered her the opportunity to get a first-hand look into the world of film production, particularly when she and her trip mates had a chance encounter with a filmmaker on a bus.

“Not only do you get insight from the directors [at the talkbacks], but we actually ran into one of the directors on a bus ride and just talked about what we do at ACU and how to grow our craft and he really encouraged us,” Clark said.

Dickson said the university is looking into developing a short course similar to those offered at Pepperdine, Lipscomb and Biola, that would give students course credit for attending Sundance as part of a short course during the spring semester.